Patti Smith: Just KidsI'm not much of a fan of either of the artists featured (Patti Smith and Robert Mappelthorpe), but the book is very compelling taking me into a new world and time that I was not really aware of. (***)

Interesting Thoughts

June 02, 2008

Book Review: Man's Search for Meaning

Man's Search for Meaning by Vicktor Frankl is a well known book about one man's struggle through concentration camps and his reflections in the context of a psychiatric approach known as logotherapy (a treatment that essentially focuses on helping the patient find meaning in life). I was a little reticent at first because I feel like I've heard the story so many different ways that I wouldn't get new perspective on it.

Wrong!

The first thing that I hadn't contemplated before was the idea that by stripping a person of their possessions, dignity and even hope that all that is left is our essence, our strength which we either can lean on or just forget.

The other interesting thing was how seemingly clinical he was in evaluating the behavior of different people in the camp. For example the Capos, who were prisoners put in the position of authority at the camps, who were often brutal he didn't condemn or judge them, he just described them.

The main takeaway from the book for me was how he described we find meaning in life. In that context he described the 3 ways to find meaning in life:

By creating a work or doing a deed

By experiencing something or encountering someone

By the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering

He spent a great deal of the book (understandably) speaking to #3. He repeatedly quoted Nietzsche who said "He who has a why to live can
bear almost any how" which I thought was particularly powerful and a clear explanation of what #3 is all about.

I LOVED the way he described how unfair it is that someone who is unhappy (depressed) is ashamed in our society because they are unhappy (where the default should be happy) making it almost doubly difficult to get out of it. It reminded me of my brother who passed away who fought demons almost daily and I'm sure was ashamed because he had to, which looking back feels really unfair at a minimum.

The one issue I have with the book is that meaning (in any of the 3 ways as noted above) puts meaning essentially in the future. When any one of the three happen, then you can look back at it and assign meaning to life.

That's a bit troublesome because:

It makes the present secondary. You have to get somewhere or do something in the future to find meaning.

It leaves meaning to the past. I feel like you essentially have to look back on the past to evaluate that meaning and when you do, I think there is more than one way to interpret it, so how reliable is that?

Regardless of whether I agree with him or not, I love the depth and simplicity of the book, it's a great combo and a beautiful book.

Finally, in the Afterword, a writer quoted Frankl as saying "I do not forget a good deed done to me, and I do not carry a grudge for a bad one". That's awesome.

Comments

Hi Tim, Great seeing you at yesterdy's Junto! :) I appreciated a lot of the thought prompting on what made for "good advice" and how outcome-based or not it is, and when it truly matters as with your daughter.

I love Viktor Frankl's book - thanks for reminding me of the nuggets contained as it's been a really long time since I've read it.

You may like Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke if you liked Frankl, and have not already found Rilke!